Conger seeks to unseat Merkley

Oregon State Rep. Jason Conger (R-Bend) announced on Tuesday morning that he will seek to unseat U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley in the November 2014 election.

Conger, 45, publicly revealed his intention to seek his partys nomination in front of dozens of supporters during an Oct. 15 speech at the Museum of the Oregon Territory in Oregon City.

Congers district lost many of its rural and more conservative voters after the 2010 election with subsequent redistricting, so he surprised some pundits by winning re-election in 2012. A business attorney, he is a founder and principal of Cornerstone Realty Holdings, a company that acquires and manages multifamily properties.

Its time someone actually stood up for working men, women and families in Oregon instead of serving Washington insiders and special interests, he said. Even as our economy sputters through an uneven recovery, the government has shut down and all we see in Washington is partisan posturing and inefficient, ineffective governing.

In a recent letter to constituents, Merkley characterized the federal shutdown as the tactics of a small group of fringe Republicans trying to undermine U.S. laws under threat of harm to hard-working Americans.

Having lived in a singlewide trailer with no heat in the winter or homeless without money for food, Conger argued that he understands real-world problems.